Bike China!!

Yumay and I got married about a month ago and decided to do a very memorable honeymoon... and that's when she came up with mountain biking in China... now that s my side of the story, on a steep climb up to a 14'ooo foot pass in the blistering heat she told me it was my idea and I dragged her out there, but I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle :)

Anyhow, it was a great honeymoon, we had a ton of fun and yes, it was hard, but not that we expected this to be a walk in the park.... I think it was on that same hill that I had her on tow and she looked up, smiled and said "I married into the harsh life now, didn't I?" hehe, yes you did dear :)


We found Peter online at www.bikechina.com and he was extremely helpful and very flexible on what we needed from him, he usually organizes all-inclusive bike trips but all we needed were two bikes, all the peripherals and a couple of maps and we were good to go... he got us all that for a very fair prize, and was very helpful onsite when he picked us up with his recumbent bicycle! Probably the only one in china, but certainly the only one in Chengdu, he gets a lot of stares and laughters about it....

So after a day of exploring Chengdu we were off... we had planned a very nice route through the mountains to cut from Chengdu to Lanzhou, and I knew that even at best case scenario we would probably not make it without taking some buses, especially since we intended to hike and horseback ride along the way as well....


Yumay is all packed and ready to embark on the bike trip of her life!

First day took us through the outskirts of Chengdu (a 10+ million city it takes a few hours to bike out of it!) to some ancient irrigation systems north, about a 50 mile ride away... we left very early (4am) and made it there, hiked around and had enough time to get into the mountains before dark, since we wanted to get away from the massive traffic early on....

We made it up into the mountains quite a bit, though in the later afternoon the skies opened up and we were soaked through and through, it is the rainy season after all.. fortunately we were still at low elevations and in the south so it was quite ok temperature wise.. we cycled with these three teenagers that did a 2 day bike trip, with their beater bikes and in jeans and cotton tshirts... man o man!



Roadblock!! Glad we werent biking right when that happened (15 minutes prior!)


Little rest and warm cup of noodle soup with our new friends..


Rainy season... very very rainy!


Yumay s about to get VERY wet and dirty :)


Enjoying the terrific food of the Sichuan Province


A little rest on the bus...

The next day with combination of rising early, biking and taking the bus we made it up to our first destination, Songpan, where we did a two day horseback riding tour to hot springs in the mountains... well they were not really hot springs but the smelled sulfury and came out of the ground so two out of three counts I guess :)
We had a great time up there, riding horses all day and then camping in old fashioned yurt style while our guides cooked us some yummy dinner....


Horseback riding in the mountains...


Enjoying a cup of tea...


Gorgeous scenery...


Dinner, not the most "presentable" but very good!


Tired legs...

After that trip it was time to head out and get three solid days of Biking in, each day with thousands of feet of elevation gain.... we were the only Bikers, in fact according to the locals the only bikers ever they had seen there... I really wonder if that is true because this seems such an obvious trip to make, local or foreginer.. sure its hard when not speaking the language but one can get through (fortunately Yumay is fluent and I am quite ok at speaking it so it was easier for us)... and the sceneries were just a million bucks!!

The climbs were long and hard, but the payoff was plenty with mountain tops in the 6000m range, and being totally immersed in the non-touristy china... well when not being in the actual tourist spots.. HuianLongSi and JiuZaiGou are laden with chinese tourists, proably because they are so beautiful, but once one goes beyond the main spots the views are just as spectacular but one finds themselves alone instead of immersed in a sea of "follow the flag" and "wear the same hat"...

This was a terrific trip, and we will be back in probably two years either finishing up the trip to Lanzou (which we only got about half way) or going down south more.....


On our way to HuanLongSi...

Incredible waters...


HuanLongSi

JiuZaiGou, where "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" was filmed....

Wicked Urban!... wicked, wicked...

MerGeo competed in the wicked urban race in Portland this weekend, or second race of the season and our second second place... DART got us again but not by too much, we still need to work on our biking skills... and Eric needs to deal with having many maps, he is accurate but not the most skillful multitasker. Shane Gibson and Kathleen O'Neal put on the Wicked races and they do a very good job, meticulously organized, plenty of swag and a great course and post race party. To save ourselves an entry fee for one future event we (Liz, William, Eric and I) actually stayed at the race site all night supervising that no equipment will be stolen or damaged.. the race is part of the Rose Festival so there is plenty of drunks running around mad...
It went well (the night) but our lack of sleep made us do some pretty dumb things on course (e.g reading the wrong question from another CP and not being able to figure it out for like 10 minutes...). All in all a good race for us....


MerGeo.com in action


Rapelling off a parking garage...

What a BEAST!!??!!

So about three months ago I started an Adventure Race Team with Eric Bone. MerGeo.com is sponsored by his and Terry Farrah's company, Meridian Geographis, and to make some moola for races to come Eric suggested organizing some midweek evening adventure races.. I thought the idea was quite cooky but then again I had no better one and so I agreed to help him with it... doing course checking, registration and marketing.... really did not think it was going to go anywhere... boy was I wrong... its called Barebones Evening Adventure Sprint Tournament (BEAST).

The first BEAST race was held out at High Point Way by Tiger and took racers up grand ridge on single track with their bikes, over the hill back down to Lake Sammamish State Park, where they would Orienteer at the park and eventually via trails and roads bike back to the finish.
Bruce McAlister was responsible for food and cooked up a storm, and 42 racers showed up to race in a fun, furious, fast (Eric's BEAST Slogan) Adventure Race.

Glen Rogers from DART won, a few minutes before Ben Hall and several other close competitors, and everyone seemed to have had a blast... Team Missing Link came in pretty fast too and they all stayed around until the very end (11pm) when Sabina, Heather and Shannon crossed the finish line and we called it a night, a very successful one.. everyone voved to come back...


Tataaa! Glen is da man!


Lotsa people coming in...


Leader board


Sabina, Heather and Shannon


Joker Aaron cleaning up...

Winteroba

Yumay and I competed in our second adenture race and had a good time at Winteroba... strangely enough only about 35 people showed up at the Hyak Lodge to race, maybe due to the missing snow and the rainy forecast... and it poured!
The race course was fun, taking us up towards Lake Kacheess, back over towards the gold creek valley, by Don Brooks house and the across Gold Creek via a tyrolean traverse.. we connected with Barry from ARGG (Dr. Strangelove) and together (him and I navigated) we got ourselves lost real good on the wrong mountain.... Yumay was already hypothermic and I thought she would have to pull out but she stuck it out and we finished in just under 8h.... learned from some mistakes (clothing, navigation, race prep) and I would do that race again, especially with Yumay.


This is what a checkpoint above Joel's head looks like....


Breakfast for champions....


Off we go...


ACTION!


Yumay on a tyrolean traverse..

Alaska!

The relationship with Yumay has been gradually growing over the year and since we are both "up or out" kind of people we figured a two week hiking trip through alaska would be pretty beneficial to our relationship... along the fact that we both like to travel!

I just forfeitted going to race in Primal Quest with team DART (Matt Hart blew out his knee and they needed a replacement fast) and kept my promise to Yumay, though she was cool enough to give me the choice, since she knows that that would be a big dream of mine! Hindsight can sometimes be a beautiful thing too and I am glad I went to Alaska!

So we set off to the Kenai Peninsula, saying in Seward and Cooper Canyon for almost a week. There we mostly hiked, and took a cruise to see sealife. It was just incredible how pristine the landscape is, even with the masses of tourists the land still very much seems untouched in most places.

Out in seward on our first day...

And on our boat cruise...

Humpback about to impress the tourists...!

The not so lucky ones....

Talk about the catch of the day!!

A nice hike at copper canyon

Marmot

The glaciers sure were impressive too..

Now Yumay is a lot of things but not the greatest most careful planner, and I lack as well in the category, so we totally underestimated the temperatures..... (yes, alaska, but its august for gods sake!)... fortunately she is a trooper and we were able to camp most of the days... as it was more fun (we usually had the whole campground to ourselves...) . We hiked several days, among them some monster hikes in cooper canyon, where we came across a gigantic cadaver (nicely cut up in 4 big pieces and wrapped with cloth) of a moose, which freaked us out a good bit, but then fortunately soon after saw the hunters, a couple from Alaska that hunts a moose per year to have meat through the winter. They had to cut it up in 6 pieces alltogether and carry it out over two days..., incredible!!

Denali National Park

One of our many campsites...

Enjoying making dinner...

I see dead moose!!

Anyhow we went up to Denali National Park as well and encountered some gigantic grizzlybears, but we were in the bus driving through the park, and were about as safe as taking a ferry ride in switzerland, however the adrenaline still pumped pretty good sitting in the bus just a few yards away from a 1000lbs grizzly!

Last but not least.. the grizzly...

Swiss Miss!

So Yumay has gotten more and more into the adventure racing vortex too.... after doing minor support at some of my race (she claims she is not a very supportive person, that more because she d rather race :). So we needed to find an appropriate race, and found it in the 6 degree of navigation organized by the Cascade Orienteering Club at St. Edwards State park. Good venue, good trail system, and I got to practice my pathetic nav skills ahead of time since I was able to get my hands on a map before. That was the easy part.
When I met Yumay she was a gym junkie, and she has slowly transitioned into an outdoorsy person, well not slowly, rapidly. But what is more amazing is that she has the aptitude for everything she does. She is a good runner, kayaker and seems to learn mountain biking at relative ease. That is except for the hard stuff. See I am a smart person when it comes to obstacles. When in doubt, get off, walk around it, and go on. Not Yumay. Which is not to say that she is not smart, as she knows the consequences when it does not pan out. She just chooses to try. Then crash. Then scream in pain. Then try. Then crash.. yes, you get it, it goes on. Scarily that will make her a better mountain biker sooner than I like it, as we guys really like to be the tough and better ones.... oh well, I m gonna have to let this one go cuz no way in hell will I transition into that trying/crashing/retrying (in pain) person... cant have it all!
So funny enough since we were doing this race together we needed to get Yumay a whole bunch of stuff.. sure we could have rented/borrowed, but I knew already we were both hooked so we needed to go do one big roundabout shopping trip. Used bike (she got a GREAT deal), paddle, PFD, the whole schabang... she noted that she is putting in a lot of investment into our relationship (thinking $$ not emotional effort, sometimes I feel like the chick in this relationship!!) and this better work out! :) Well we will find out at the race wont we?

Pre-race....

It worked just great. Not that we miraculously finished 1st. Nah, Eric Bone and Liz Stahl (he is the current U.S champion in orienteering, she runs faster than I can dream of) won by a landslide, but we did quite well. In a reprisal of the 24h Wenatchee race our rubber ducky boat spun like a 80's discoball, but we made it to shore eventually and probably 3rd last started passing teams again. My nav was OK given the circumstances (e.g. I suck), our trekking was good and we had a great time with no unhappy words exchanged, and finished 16th (out of 25 teams). Yumay was hooked, I had already been, but now was hooked on the idea to race more with her. It was more fun that with Jeff (sorry, no offense!), just way cooler doing this with my girlfriend, and I already knew I had a keeper but this one helped cementing it a bit. We raced as team Swiss Miss (since I am the swiss and she is the miss), and certainly going to keep that name for races to come!

24h Trioba, Cle Elum, or Burn Baby Burn!!

104 farenheit is hot.... very hot... even for Arizona or friggin Texas where a village is missing an idiot.. anyhow, but in the northwest 104 farenheit is just pure torture. And then make someone run, bike, and swim (paddle, blaeh, more later) for 24h... a recipe for disaster, ....? I would say so!


The usual pre-race motel chaos.. how do you fit 4 people, 6 tubs, 4 bikes and a whole bunch of unnecessary items into a hotel room?

Our course... yellow trek, blue swim/paddle, black bike...

Anyhow...it all started off so well. After training so much in the spring the races Jeff and I did were good, but I really wanted to race 4coed, and once we got Brook Nunn onboard we just needed a 4th, which we found in Dave Russell, an experienced racer and navigator. Once checked in, we found out that the water leg involved swimming, at least for 3 of the 4... one got to paddle the rubber ducky across the water with the packs. We shuffled, delibered, called around, and then found a way to get our hands on snorkeling gear, so we stuffed the fins deep into our packs to pull a sneaky on the other teams once we got there... but we first needed to get there and that was easier said than done.

The day started off early, as usual, 3.30 am up, 5 am bus, 6 am start. We had to first go across a big ridge and chose the shortest route across it, which was ok and 90% of the people did something similar, but hindsight being 20/20 there would have been a better way. We did not anticipate the bushwhack to be so darn gnarly but it was and took quite a toll already when three hours later we got to the water....

Bushwhack this!

Almost vertical trek up to the ridge... not for the faint of heart...

View on top was worth it though!

I was supposed to be in the boat since Jeff, Brook and Dave were all good swimmers and I sucked..... as soon as we got into the water however Jeff already cramped up and that was not a good sign. So we switched out, me in the water, doing my dog-paddle holding onto the rope while Jeff Kayaked, and Brook and Dave just outright swam across... interestingly we did get 2nd fastest time on that leg.... probably much likely due to the fins... smarts are important in AR, always.

Stunning views!

Exhillarating downhills!

Icecold footbaths!

150 foot rappell...

Getting out of the freezing water we all felt pretty terrible, but warmed up pretty quickly and once the climb started realized that that warming up process would go on and on until it passed comfortable.... at 10 it was already 90F, at 12 probably around 100F. A poor route choice, lack of water, and insufficient teamwork made it all a bit worse and all of a sudden we were trying to hold on... such it goes in AR sometimes....

Feeling strong, towing Dave who had enough time apparently to take pictures!

We lost a few hours on the long bike leg due to our problems, but did not realize that Jeff was very dehydrated and needed rest and fluids... so I pressed hard to get the big trek started.. which was a mistake. About 2h into it, after a long beautiful rappell Jeff opted to quit the race, and I hiked out with him, while Brook and Dave continued unranked.
It opened my eyes, and showed me pretty clearly where I wanted to be heading. DART was one of only four teams that finished, and they were almost three hours ahead of 2nd place. I wanted to be there. I felt great throughout the race and could have pushed much harder, it was time to look for likeminded people to give DART good competition.... but for now it was many lessons learned, and a very good, very tough course DNFed... my first, probably not last, but hopefully one of very very few....

Found a checkpoint at night....

Cycle, Run, Glissade..... Mt. Rainer!

Roger, Mt. Rainer, Plastic Bag

Last weekend I did a little epic training with Jeff.. camped at Paradise Campground Friday late night and then got up at 4am to cycle from Paradise down to the flats and up to Cayusse pass, very nice felt exactly like Switzerland! Once up there we turned around and cycled back down and up to Paradise again.. it was now 9.30am and we had already done 8000 feet of elevation gain and 70+ miles on the bike and then ran/hiked up to Mt. Rainer Basecamp, Camp Muir, located at 10'000 feet... I felt like a million bucks and soon ran by myself, passing Michelle and her friend who had started earlier in the day to make it up there... the basecamp was not too crowded and I found a spot to lay out in the sun and get warm and toasty... that was already worth it but what came next was an adventure I did not expect...

Jeff's buddies brought heavy duty plastic bags and the conditions were so perfect that we glissaded down from the basecamp almost all the way down to paradise.. amazing how fast and controlled we were able to go with these.. previous tracks from other glissaders had mad bobsled-type halfpipes into the snow and it was super easy getting down... an amazing day with over 10'000 feet of climb!


Warming up on the rocks at the basecamp...


Done! Roger and Jeff after a great day of training...

24 h Adventure Race Wenatchee, 2nd Pl Male Div.

So now I have the first 24h Adventure Race under my belt too, and what a race it was! Jeff and I raced as a 2M team (Team Manny's), since the woman we almost talked into doing that race with us backed out last minute, but promised to be racing the next one (her name is Brook, she looks strong!). But we had a great support team, Michelle, Jeff's wife came out there with another friend, and Yumay came out too, so at every TA we had not only extra help but also emotional support, yeehaaw!



Roger a little stressed pre-race....




Kayak dry practice pre-race....





Left!Left!Left!NO Right!Right!Right!



To the race: Started at Cashmere near Wenatchee, where we had to paddle down some pretty scary Type I/II rapids in the Sevylor Tahiti (a.k.a rubber duckies, a.k.a. the yellow death) inflatable kayaks. Question: what happens when you do a race in a sport you never practice? Answer: unless you are the biggest natural talent (not me, nor jeff), you suck!
And we did, suck and spin... we looked like we were doing a ride at disneyland, not take part in an adventure race. We spun and yelled, tried and tried, but our boat would just not go straight. That had the advantage that we were in like 10th last place after the TA to the bike, which meant we got to pass like 20 teams on the first hill.. and it was a huge hill.... like 2500 feet of climbing, and then another.



Emotional support.. the best kind!


Trek #2



We made it to the first foot TA where we saw our lovely support crew, but not for long since we were now hot in pursuit of the top teams... until we got lost. Almost forgot for a while that we were still not stellar navigators.. that did not help. After some quarrel and discontent we cound the CP and soon were trucking again. Back to the bike and off we were. From then on it was survival mode... extra shoes, 1 gallon of water, clothes, food, my pack felt like it was a million pounds. Jeff had a stomach bug and was using the trowel like it was never used before (what the f@## do we need a trowel for I asked before the race??!!, yup, for that), so that slowed us down a bit but not much. On the last trek we had no nav problems (other than that I wanted to go in the wrong direction but jeff yelled at me long enough until I got it.. sometimes I can be a bit stubborn you know :). and then it was done! 21h of racing, 5th place, 2nd in the male category, DART won in an impressive 15h... wow, we still need to learn a lot but heck did we have fun racing!


21h07min - 5th place... nice!

The end...